Growth Of The Town.

The site of the
possible Romano-British settlement is at the north
end of the town, near a crossing of the Avon a little
above the Long Bridge. From there a road may have
crossed the Avon Ham and passed close by the
Severn under the Mythe Tute towards Bow Bridge
in Twyning, (fn. 1) and it was in the northern end of the
town that Romano-British remains were discovered,
on the site of the gas-works. (fn. 2) Traces of earthworks
were visible in the Saxon period, for the street
leading from the middle of the town was called
Oldbury Street (later High Street) and the field
stretching east from that Street was called Oldbury
field. (fn. 3)

From the 11th century settlement appears to have
centred on the point 600 yds. SSW. of the site of the
Oldbury, where the roads from north, east, and south
meet. There they are also joined by an ancient lane,
once called Salters Lane, later Guest Lane, (fn. 4) and
afterwards Tolsey Lane. (fn. 5) Later the junction was
the traditional place for holding the markets, (fn. 6) and
it is likely that they were held there from the time
when the market was first established, between 1066
and 1086. (fn. 7) At the junction stood the High Cross,
made of stone; (fn. 8) it was recorded in 1540, (fn. 9) and
demolished in 1650, the stone being used to repair
the Long Bridge. (fn. 10) The High Cross was evidently a
simple cross, distinct from the two buildings called
the Tolbooth and the Booth Hall, which were
recorded in 1487. (fn. 11) In 1540 the Tolbooth was shown
to be at the south end of High Street on the east
side. (fn. 12) In 1586 the town got a new town hall, (fn. 13) which
had a wool solar on the first floor. (fn. 14) It was described
c. 1700 as a market cross and town hall, (fn. 15) and in the
same period as a very fair market house with a
spacious town hall above for courts and public
entertainments. (fn. 16) The lower part was evidently open
at the sides. (fn. 17)

The ground at this focal point of Tewkesbury,
known as the cross, was cluttered with buildings, and
the desire to ease congestion may have been one
motive for the removal of the High Cross in 1650.
More space was cleared in 1752 when the buttermarket house, the cover over 'the king's board', and
the stocks were pulled down. (fn. 18) The exact nature of
'the king's board' is not clear, but it was apparently
a covered space, called 'the king's place' in 1526, used
in connexion with the markets. (fn. 19) In 1788 Sir
Christopher Codrington built a new town hall or
tolsey in High Street and presented it to the
corporation. It was a two-storied gabled building
of stone, with a colonnaded lower floor, and was
intended for judicial, administrative, and deliberative business. It was set back from the street, and the
courtyard in front was intended for a corn market. (fn. 20)
In or soon after 1839 the building was enlarged to
include a police station, cells, and a fire station, (fn. 21)
and the front was brought forward flush with the
other buildings in the street. In 1789 a new market
hall was built at the cross on the south side of Barton
Street, and the old market house, town hall, tolbooth,
or tolsey was demolished. (fn. 22) The new market hall
went out of use when the markets moved to the area
of Station Street to be near the railway line, and its
site was taken in 1878 for the new Wesleyan chapel. (fn. 23)
After the First World War a memorial cross was
placed at the centre of the road-junction.

South-west from the cross the town was for long
contained by the abbey and its precinct, and it is
likely that buildings reached along Church Street
as far as Gander Lane and the Bull Ring (the
widening in Church Street where Gander Lane
joins it) by the early 12th century when the
abbey was founded. On the north-west side of
Church Street, where St. Mary's Lane makes a
semi-circular loop, and north-east as far as the
cranked course of Tolsey Lane, the characteristic
pattern of Tewkesbury — long and narrow burgage
tenements stretching back from the three main
streets, and usually including alleys or elongated
courts — is broken. This may indicate that the street
pattern of this part had developed haphazard, and
was fixed before Queen Maud gave the town its
market and its burgesses. In the 20th century the
lines of streets and lanes north-west of the abbey
remained irregular and confused, though they were
far less crowded and cramped than in the 19th
century; (fn. 24) in the 16th century there was a maze of
lanes there (fn. 25) and the houses were small. (fn. 26) Walker's
Lane, recorded in the 13th century, (fn. 27) was an
alternative name for the back part of St. Mary's
Lane, (fn. 28) and Crispin Lane, recorded in 1509, (fn. 29) was
either Bank Alley or the eastern end of St. Mary's
Lane. (fn. 30) In addition to Mill Street, Mill Bank, and
Wayte Lane, which survived in 1964, the area in
1540 also contained Long Alley (perhaps Old Chapel
Court or Chandler's Court), which was important
enough to serve as a point of reference, (fn. 31) and
apparently Braziers' Lane, (fn. 32) which cannot be
identified. The area of St. Mary's Lane underwent
a good deal of demolition and rebuilding in the two
decades following the Second World War. The
assumption that the main road south out of the town
in the Middle Ages went along St. Mary's Lane or
Mill Street, (fn. 33) and the alternative theory that it went
down Gander Lane, have little to recommend
them. (fn. 34) The accounts of the abbey's property in 1540
indicate that Church Street followed its modern
course and was the main route. (fn. 35)

With expansion on the south-west prevented by
the existence of the abbey precinct (part of which,
even so, seems to have been used for secular houses) (fn. 36)
and by liability to flood, the town's physical growth
was northward along High Street and eastward
along Barton Street. High Street was called Oldbury
Street in 1257 (fn. 37) and is not found as High Street
until the 16th century; (fn. 38) both names were used until
the mid-19th century. (fn. 39) It held the position of the
'chiefest' street in the 16th century, (fn. 40) and though
in 1608 Church Street had a slightly higher number
of men on the muster roll and not a noticeably
smaller proportion of the wealthier tradesmen, (fn. 41) in
1672 High Street had clearly the highest share of the
large houses. (fn. 42) The appearance of Red Lane where
it follows the Avon suggests considerable antiquity,
and Red Lane is possibly the Eleanor's Lane
mentioned in 1393 as running between Oldbury
Street and the Avon. (fn. 43) If so, High Street was builtup for virtually the whole of its length by the late
14th century, and on other grounds that is not
unlikely. On either side, except for a short stretch
at the south end, High Street is flanked by narrow
tenements running back, not quite at right angles,
on the west to the Mill Avon and on the east to the
former Oldbury field. Apart from small alleys, each
within the width of the tenement to which it
belonged, only Smith's Lane, Quay Lane, (fn. 44) and
Red Lane break the street frontage on the west side
between the cross and the Long Bridge, and the east
side contained no break more than an alley until the
19th century. (fn. 45) At the end of the 16th century one
way into Oldbury field was through Little Lilly
Croft, at the extreme north end of High Street, and
the building of some mean houses there caused an
obstruction. (fn. 46)

After houses had filled the whole available
frontage of High Street, like that of Church Street,
there remained Barton Street, the third of the three
main streets comprising the town. Barton Street
was less suitable for building than High Street
because it is slightly lower and therefore more
vulnerable to floods, and on the south side the
nearness of the Swilgate prevented the holdings
from stretching so far back from the street. Although
in 1675 it was suggested that Barton Street was as
long as High Street, (fn. 47) 16th-century accounts show
that it contained fewer and poorer houses. (fn. 48) In 1608
many fewer inhabitants were returned for Barton
Street than for High Street or Church Street, and in
general they followed humbler callings. (fn. 49) Timberframed buildings extend along Barton Street only
about half as far as along High Street, and in the
18th century Barton Street stopped where Chance
Street joins it. (fn. 50) In 1540 there was a gate at the end
of Barton Street, and a garden (fn. 51) called the almoner's
orchard by it. (fn. 52) Barton Street, so called in 1257, (fn. 53)
took its name from the barton or grange of the Earls
of Gloucester, (fn. 54) which is likely to have been the
building marked as 'tithe barn' in the western angle
of Chance Street and Barton Street on a map of
1811. (fn. 55) The barn was presumably the stone-tiled
barn of seven bays that housed the gaol of the liberty
in 1547, (fn. 56) the stable and grange for the king's horses
recorded in 1526, (fn. 57) and perhaps the place in Tewkesbury where the king's horses were kept in 1205 (fn. 58) and
1236. (fn. 59)

The disposition, therefore of the houses of
Tewkesbury along the three converging main streets
of the town was controlled on the north-west by the
Mill Avon and the low-lying Severn Ham, on the
north-east by Oldbury field, and on the south by
the Swilgate. Back lanes ran along the Avon, the
Swilgate, (fn. 60) and apparently along the course of Oldbury Road and East Street, round the south-west
corner of Oldbury field. (fn. 61) High Street was built-up
for its whole length as far as the water-meadows by
the Carrant brook, while land and buildings belonging to the two great estates, those of the abbey and
of the honor of Gloucester, the land being, moreover, liable to flood, closed the outer ends of Church
Street and Barton Street. The superficial extent of
the town, thus confined, remained the same from
the later Middle Ages until the early 19th century.

Any increase that was required in the number of
houses was achieved by raising the density of
building, and particularly by making, behind the
houses fronting the main streets, rows of cottages
approached by the alleys that had originally given
access to the stores, workshops, and gardens at the
back. In this way the characteristic arrangement of
picturesque but insanitary alleys and courts evolved.
By-laws of the early 17th century assumed that every
house had a frontage to the street and back premises
that were not primarily for habitation, (fn. 62) and most of
the houses in the alleys are of the late 17th century
or the 18th. Statistical evidence which is stated below
suggests a growing population in that period, and the
changed pattern of housing may be associated with
the replacement of a cloth industry, in which much
of the work was done in the master's house, by a
knitting industry carried on mainly in the houses of
the knitters. The alleys with houses built in them
encouraged the poverty-ridden overcrowding that
came with an increased population and the town's
industrial decline in the mid-19th century. (fn. 63)

The inclosure of Oldbury field in 1811 had made a
large new area available for building, close to the
centre of the town. Two long streets, Oldbury Road
and Chance Street, were laid out parallel to High
Street, and two shorter ones parallel to Barton
Street. (fn. 64) By 1830 nearly 200 houses had been built
in the area, which continued to be called Oldbury or
the Oldbury, (fn. 65) and a further 100 by 1850. (fn. 66) The
building of New Street between 1828 (fn. 67) and 1842,
and of Nelson Street after 1842 along the line of
Nelson Alley, (fn. 68) remedied the lack of access between
the main streets and the new streets in the Oldbury;
the name New Street was changed to Trinity Street
after Holy Trinity church at its eastern end,
consecrated in 1837. (fn. 69) Sun Alley (the western end of
Station Street) was also enlarged, apparently before
1828, (fn. 70) but was still called Sun Alley rather than Sun
Street in 1842. (fn. 71) On the other side of High Street
Quay Lane was widened in 1843 by demolishing its
southern side so that it could carry the railway line
to the quay; thereafter it was known as Quay
Street. (fn. 72) Apart from the new houses in Oldbury there
was in the same period scattered building, including
some larger houses, along Barton Road — the
extension of Barton Street — where there was
already a house called the Folly, near the pound,
in 1811; (fn. 73) and a row of houses was built at the end
of Church Street. (fn. 74)

There was hardly any new building in Tewkesbury between the 1850's and the 1930's, and a slight
fall in the net number of inhabited houses. (fn. 75) The
only notable extension in the period was the building
of houses along the main road beyond the workhouse, (fn. 76) built 100 yds. south of Swilgate Bridge in
1793. (fn. 77) Before the Second World War some houses
were built in the northern part of the Oldbury, and
others were built as the first of the estate called
Prior's Park, between the Swilgate and the main
road to the south. The main development of Prior's
Park came after the war, and houses were still being
built there in 1964. The estate is mixed, with
buildings of one, two, three, and four stories, of
varied materials, some built privately and some by
the borough council. In 1964 a bridge over the
Swilgate was opened to link Prior's Park with a
smaller post-war estate called Oldfield, between the
Swilgate and Barton Road. (fn. 78) Other post-war housing
estates lay further east, on either side of the main
road in what was formerly the parish of Ashchurch,
and more houses were built in the Oldbury.

A small public park called the Victoria Ground or
Gardens, lying beside the Mill Avon below the
Abbey Mills, was opened in 1897. (fn. 79) The Vineyards
Park, by the Swilgate opposite the abbey church,
was acquired by the corporation in 1929. (fn. 80)

Tewkesbury had 66 recorded inhabitants in 1066
and 101 in 1086. (fn. 81) In 1327 the total of 86 people
assessed for tax, 65 in the town and 21 in the two
hamlets, (fn. 82) was considerably lower than the number
of burgesses specified, together with agricultural
tenants, in a survey of the Earl of Gloucester's
manor in the same year. (fn. 83) In the mid-16th century
various estimates gave the number of communicants
in the whole of Tewkesbury as 1,600, (fn. 84) 2,000 (fn. 85) and
2,600. (fn. 86) The lowest figure has the look of most
accuracy: in 1563 there were said to be 396 households (fn. 87) and in 1603 1,600 communicants. (fn. 88) The
estimate of 1,000 families in 1650 (fn. 89) seems too high;
471 houses were assessed for or discharged from
hearth tax in 1672, (fn. 90) and a return of 2,001 adults was
made in 1676. (fn. 91) The figures nevertheless suggest an
increase, and in 1723 a painstaking census showed a
population of 2,866. (fn. 92) The population reached 3,000
about the middle of the century, (fn. 93) was 3,768 in
1792, (fn. 94) and rose steadily to 5,780 in 1831. It then
levelled off, and from 5,878 in 1851 it fell to 5,100 in
1881. After fluctuating it fell to 4,352 in 1931; the
rise to 5,822 in 1961 was attributable only in part to
the boundary extension of 1931, and mainly to the
building of new houses in Prior's Park. (fn. 95) The foregoing figures include those for the two hamlets,
Southwick and the Mythe, which, until the building
of the Prior's Park estate in Southwick, contributed
very little to the total.

Tewkesbury, 1964

The hamlet of Southwick was recorded in 1086
as one of the group of small estates closely dependent
on Tewkesbury. (fn. 96) Southwick was separately tallaged
in 1205, (fn. 97) and contained 11 taxpayers in 1327. (fn. 98) In
1662 there were 21 houses assessed for hearth tax, (fn. 99)
and in 1841 there were 23 houses. (fn. 100) It is doubtful
whether there was ever any settlement of the nature
of a village in Southwick; the nearest thing is the
scattered group of houses at Lincoln Green on the
lane called Tad Lane or Frog Lane in 1544, (fn. 101) but
the group of buildings half a mile further south, to
which Tad Lane once continued, may have been
more of a centre. That is the place marked as Southwick on maps, and although in 1964 it had only a
farm-house (Southwick Farm) and a pair of cottages,
there were more buildings in 1828. (fn. 102) It was presumably either there or at Lincoln Green that before
1553 three or more messuages lay in fairly close
proximity. (fn. 103) For the rest, until the late 19th century
Southwick comprised a number of separate houses
and cottages. The chief of them is Tewkesbury
Park, which with Gubshill Manor and Southwick
Farm is described below.

At Gubshill there were two large houses until
1830 or later. Gubshill Manor, however, is the house
marked on older maps east of the main road, for
until the late 18th century the road ran south and
west of Gubshill Manor. (fn. 104) The other house belonged
in 1824 to the estate (fn. 105) that included the rectangular
moat which survived in 1964 with the name of
Margaret's Camp. It may have been the house called
the Vineyard, occupied by William Read in 1553 (fn. 106)
and perhaps by Giles Read in 1608. (fn. 107) In 1824 it
belonged to John Wintle and in 1830 to his widow. (fn. 108)
Later record of it has not been found. Half a mile
south, beside the main road, stood Stonehouse Farm,
where in 1964 there was no sign of any ancient
building. Southwick Park, west of Stonehouse Farm
and by the Southwick brook, was built in the mid19th century as a large three-story stuccoed villa,
on the site of an earlier house; (fn. 109) in 1952 it became
the home of Tewkesbury Grammar School. (fn. 110)

In the south-west part of Southwick is Park Farm,
formerly Lodge Farm, a square three-story brick
building of the 18th century; it has a three-ridged
roof and heavy pilasters at the corners, and appears
to have been remodelled in the early 19th century.
Part of the structure derives from a much earlier
building, for repairs in the mid-20th century revealed
wattle-and-daub walling near the former front door
on the west. (fn. 111) A quarter of a mile west, at Rayer's
Hill, a pair of 19th-century Gothick cottages of
rubble was falling down in 1964. Near the Odessa
Inn on the main road at the southern boundary of
the parish (fn. 112) there was in 1964 a holiday caravan site
and a small brick farm-house north of it. Cowpen
Farm, by the River Swilgate, was built in the mid19th century. Rudgeway Farm, east of the Swilgate,
was called Trinity Farm until the 19th century and
existed by 1603. (fn. 113) It is an L-shaped timber-framed
house of two stories. The ground- and first-floor
levels are lower and appear older in the south range
than in the north wing. The space beneath the
projecting first floor has all been filled, and some
panels of the upper story have brick fillings. The
house has been altered at least three times since the
17th century.

The extension of Tewkesbury town, described
above, has completely changed the character of the
north-eastern part of Southwick.

The Mythe, which Domesday Book does not
record, was tallaged as a separate vill in 1205. (fn. 114) The
name, meaning a river confluence, (fn. 115) befits a tract of
land rather than a settlement. In 1327 the vill
contained 10 taxable inhabitants. (fn. 116) In 1547 the chief
messuage of the Mythe adjoined a chapel, (fn. 117) which
may have been a private oratory rather than a chapel
of ease. Eight houses in the Mythe were assessed for
tax in 1662, (fn. 118) and there were said to be 12 c. 1710. (fn. 119)
In 1841 there were 17 houses, (fn. 120) and a high proportion of them were large houses of the villa type: in
1830 there were in addition to the house called King
John's Castle six houses described as 'delightful
seats'. (fn. 121) There is no evidence that there was ever a
nucleated settlement at the Mythe. In 1639 an estate
included a parcel of waste called Mythe Green,
with a cottage and three closes; (fn. 122) in 1586 a newly
built house in the meadow close to the bottom of
the hill was recorded; (fn. 123) the Stalls Farm near the
northern boundary has a timber-framed barn of the
17th century or earlier. The 'delightful seats' were
built widely spaced on the top of the hill at Mythe
End and on the slope overlooking Avon Ham and
the Avon from the mid-18th century (fn. 124) onward, and
relatively large houses continued to be built there
up to the mid-20th century. King John's Castle and
the house called the Mythe are described below,
under the estates to which they belonged. The
reservoir and the large red-brick water-tower at the
highest point of the Mythe were built in 1889. (fn. 125)

83. S.C. 11/249. There were 114 burgesses, 56 'customary
tenants', 17 'ploughman' tenants, 7 tenants by serjeanty,
and 4 cottars; the free tenants were not specified. Some of
the agricultural tenants were in Ashchurch and Tredington.